I analyze the differences between the old MacBook Pro and the new MacBook, based on Steve Jobs’ announcement that it was the same functionality for $700 less. Sometimes, one has to do the research to discover whether something is true or not.

Some people will say that the black-out was no big deal and for most, it wasn’t but it belied a number of critical issues. Today, less than 24 hours after our electricity was restored (for the record, 28th street between Lexington and 3rd Avenue got its electricity back on Friday at 9:45pm), I am thinking about some of the scenes I witnessed in this historical event. First of all, I was impressed by how cool and collected everyone was. While there are many recollections of the black-out here’s mine. (granted, I’m posting this late but I just finished making sure that everyone was OK on this end and replugging and generally digging under from the madness of the past few days). Thursday was a regular day at the office… until about 4pm. At a few minutes ’til 4pm, something happened to the lights in our building. I was looking at my computer screen and noticed a slight dim. As I was wondering whether this was due to lack of coffee or a sugar low, or just general dizziness due to too many hours staring at the screen, the lights went out for a few seconds, and every computers went dead….

There’s been much discussion over the past year related to the viability of new wireless operators trying to implement national networks for Wi-Fi. The issue is one of cost and return on investment. As we learned during the dotcom boom, it is easy to build new infrastructures but it is much harder to build new infrastructures that are not only scalable but also profitable. With the introduction of free Wi-Fi to existing broadband customers, Verizon is changing the model again. On one side, you have smaller operators like Boingo that are trying to make a go of it without anything else. My bet is that the future of such operators lies in being acquired, either by a telephone company (in that particular case, I would bet on Sprint acquiring them since Boingo already has a relationship with their PCS division). On another side are existing large mobile operators like T-mobile who are trying to create a bundle that includes mobile phone service and data service all in one package. Those will probably continue to move successfully but will be forced to lower prices as time goes on. Now, with the Verizon offer, I expect to see not only DSL operators…

Brighthand reports about a new piece of software that allows to make calls using a Pocket PC and a Wi-Fi card. This is an interesting development that could turn Wi-Fi into a very disruptive technology for the mobile phone industry and may explain why companies like T-mobile are placing bets on the phenomenon, covering themselves in case other revenues (from regular mobile phones) were to evaporate. At $30/month, Wi-Fi service can currently be seen as an expensive toy for the mobile worker. But if you consider the possibility to make phone calls for the same price, the price seems low. Compared to most cellular phone programs that offer a few hundred or thousand minutes every month for roughly the same price, the idea of unmetered service could represent a huge growth opportunity for anyone offering a hotspot. However, the issue will then become one of available bandwidth. As more and more hotspots are added, the pervasiveness of Wi-Fi makes the possibility to bypass the phone network more real. The next step in that evolution would be for the Wi-Fi protocol to include some kind of mechanism to check the strength of signal. If you think of the cellular phone system,…